The Kennedy Legacy

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31134, 10 August 1966, Page 9

The Kennedy Legacy

CNZ. Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 8. New Zealand had no reason to take a “back seat” to any country in the development of its foreign policy, President Kennedy’s special counsel, Mr Theodore C. Sorensen, said tonight. “It is a nation which can—more than most —take a leading role in carrying out the Kennedy legacy,” he said. About 300 persons, including Cabinet ministers. Parliamentarian's. Government officials. diplomats and represen-

tatives of the churches. I assembled in the Legislative | Council chamber for the first of Mr Sorensen’s five New Zealand lectures. Mr Sorensen, a 37-year-old lawyer, said he had been reminded to advise that his views were “no longer necessarily the views of the White House. “But the views of the White House are no longer necessarily my own,” he added. In his lecture, “The Worldwide Kennedy Legacy,” Mr Sorenson discussed Mr Kennedy’s political, domestic, and foreign policy legacies. “I am convinced John Kennedy left for us all a legacy far richer and lasting than any bronze memorial or monument,” he said. The legacy was not only what he had accomplished, but what he had initiated. I Thousands had come to Washington, attracted by Mr Kennedy’s example, and some had entered politics because he had made politics important, interesting and exciting. Mr Kennedy had made the Presidency an every-day factor in the life of every American. He had also removed the religious barrier in front of the White House. He had demonstrated that as President, his only obligation had been to his conscience—and as a : result all groups now had increased political opportunity. The President had turned the American civil rights issue from a political football into a moral issue. Mr Sorensen suggested that

in his life-time an American Vice-Presidential or Presidential candidate be a Negro, a Jew or even a representative of that “most oppressed minority”—a woman.